She normally stayed a week, but after three days in the suburbs it began to feel like she’d been there long enough. Rita’s neighborhood friends were always dropping by—Tuesday for health shakes, Wednesday for scrapbooking. This morning, roused by their noise, Kim had made her way down to the kitchen to find a group of them trying to convince Rita to go to the outlets. These women had plenty of money but nonetheless got a thrill out of finding a bargain. Rita was hesitant about the plan. She knew that Kim wasn’t a shopper. “Maybe it’s time I learned,” Kim said. “Maybe it’s time I broadened my horizons. This is stuff other people didn’t want, right—at the outlets? That might suit me. I usually like stuff other people don’t want.” She got a bottle of diet soda from the fridge and sat down at the table with it. She felt bad for Rita, having to juggle Kim and her other friends all at once. Kim so plainly didn’t fit in that she’d begun to feel emboldened. “It’ll be all day,”
